1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reactor provided with a heat radiating member for radiating heat generated by a coil, and to a power converter incorporating the reactor.
2. Related Art
A reactor is a kind of electronic parts, which is composed, for example, by winding a coil around a core made of magnetic material. Supply of current to the coil will generate magnetic flux which is distributed along the core.
Operation of the reactor with the supply of current is accompanied by generation of Joule heat from the coil. This heat generation may allow the temperature of the reactor to be excessively high, which may damage the operational stability of the reactor. The heat generation may also allow the temperature of the electronic parts surrounding the reactor to be excessively high, which may damage the operational stability of the electronic parts. As a result, a power converter, for example, incorporating such a reactor may have damage in the operational stability.
In order to suppress the temperature increase of a reactor, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-050527 suggests a reactor provided with a heat radiation structure.
A reactor provided with such a heat radiation structure has a heat sink plate to which the reactor is arranged, so that heat radiation from an outer surface of the reactor can be accelerated.
However, depending on the shape of a reactor, it may be difficult to ensure a sufficient contact area between the reactor and the heat sink, which may bring about difficulty in improving the radiation efficiency.
In particular, the heat generated by the coil tends to stay inside the coil. Therefore, acceleration of heat generation of only the outer surface of the reactor may not exert an effect of well suppressing the temperature increase of the reactor. On the other hand, use of an iron core, for example, as in the conventional art, may present a difficulty in arranging a cooling member inside the coil.